On Saturday a Queens man was sentenced to 17 years to life in prison by Judge Jerald Carter for a robbery which turned fatal. According to Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice, Jerod Plowden, 26, of St. Albans, gunned down Moez Hassan outside of an abandoned house in Freeport on the afternoon of April 12, 2011.
“Jerod Plowden lured his victim to an abandoned home under false pretenses only to rob and brutally murder him with five gunshots about his whole body,” DA Rice said. “This sentence will keep this violent man incarcerated for a very long time and the streets will be safer because of it.”
On the day of Robbery, Plowden and Nolan Gaugler met Hassan in order to buy Xanax pills. Before the deal could go down, Plowden and Gaugler robbed him of 75 pills and and $30. Hassan was then shot by Plowden in the head, chest, left arm, and twice in the abdomen. Nassau County police arrived on the scene after their ShotSpotter system picked up the sound of bullets.
The two robbers immediately fled the scene and Gaugler was caught minutes later. Plowden was found 16 days later during a routine traffic stop.
It took a jury two days to convict Plowden of Murder in the Second Degree, Robbery in the first Degree, and Robbery in the Second Degree. Gaugler plead guilty to Robbery in the First Degree in exchange for a promised sentence of 16 years.
[Source: District Attorney Kathleen Rice]